PRESS-RELEASE

A round table devoted to issues of practical use of innovative technologies and materials in construction of nuclear facilities was held as a part of the Business Programme of VII International Forum of Nuclear Industry Suppliers ATOMEX 2015.

Representatives of Rosatom State Corporation, National Association of Construction Engineering Consultants (NACEC), ATOMPROEKT, JCS, NIIGrafit, JSC, Moscow State University n.a. Lomonosov (MSU), ORGENERGOSTROY, JSC, Committee on Engineering under Union of Builders of Russia (RSS), National Chamber of Engineers, specialists from leading Research and Development institutions and engineering companies took part in the discussion, which was held at the exhibition booth of Branch Centre of the Capital Construction (OCKS), Rosatom.

Pavel Shornikov, a discipline head in Rosatom OCKS, the moderator of the round table, reported detailed information on the stages of executing the project on building a corporate system of implementing innovations in capital construction of Rosatom State Corporation nuclear facilities, on the structure of the system and on developing the international part of the innovation programme. ‘Work on implementing innovative technologies in capital construction and work on developing the strategy of construction industry development is very crucial, important and comprehensive. It is evident that development of nation-wide regulatory documents requires to combine efforts of the expert community, to establish international technological alliances and consortia’, the expert emphasized.

Establishing a Centre for Technologies Transfer in capital construction became one of the round table central topics for discussion. The Centre would ensure a continuous process of knowledge transfer between individuals or organizations for the purpose of their further implementation and commercialisation, and it would ensure the defence of rights to use them. Specialists note there are some barriers which restrain the technology transfer in the RF at different stages of commercialisation. In particular, those are long pay-back periods of innovative projects, difficulties experienced with their adaptation to working environment, document control, and search for qualified personnel to work with new technologies.

However, experts are still optimistic and are confident in developing new high-tech lines of business, possibly in the system of innovations transfer and interface with external players. ‘After a thorough study of international experience on building the model of a Centre for Technology Transfer, we can confirm now that in the entire world this is a multibillion business which can gain efficient results in our country too’, said Elena Tischenko, deputy head of Economics and Innovations Chair, MSU n.a. Lomonosov. ‘It is important to use a proper incentive programme and build a clear interaction sequence between all participants of the process. And there is a sufficient number of programmes for financing high-tech export-oriented developments in our country’, she said.

At the same time, both the mechanism of intellectual property rights sharing, and the statutory regulation of the innovations implementation process, raise many questions by specialists. Boris Leiferov, Director General of A-Universal Consulting, LLC, in his report stated the need for parallel development of a few levels of statutory regulation of the innovations implementation process in capital construction to ensure their consistency, practical orientation and alignment with the national statutory framework.

Whereas Valery Tropin, Advisor to Director of Rosatom OCKS on Innovative Development and Partner Relationship noted that to ensure competitiveness in the world market Rosatom pays great attention to development of integration activities and building an institute of partnership based on long-term technological alliances. A systemic work in conducted with subject matter ministries and agencies, national institutions of innovative development, to eliminate administrative statutory barriers which prevent wide application of effective business models and new technologies in industrial construction. Proposals from Rosatom OCKS and NACEC specialists have been included in the first draft of Federal Law ‘On Technical Engineering and Engineering Activity in the RF’

ATOMPROEKT, JCS, representatives based on the analysis of implementing technologies of fire protection at nuclear facilities made a conclusion on the absence of definitive criteria of ‘an innovation’ and the process of identifying a product as an innovative one, within statutory framework. ‘We need to develop nation-wide regulatory documents which contain mechanisms of evaluating the need to use an innovative products, distribution of functional roles, authorities, and responsibility of individuals, who control the implementation process’, said Dmitry Lanin, a chief specialist on fire safety, ATOMPROEKT, JCS. In addition, the company presented an innovative project on development of a new combined structure of internal protective cover (KVZO) of NPP reactor compartment which promotes the reduction of construction schedule, cost decrease and improvement of level of industrialisation of plants construction.

During the round table, Vladimir Shishkin, Project Manager, NIIGrafit, JSC, told details of the pilot project on ‘transformation of weak saturated soil properties of footings under primary and auxiliary buildings and structures of Kurskaya NPP-2’ which is being executed within the framework of Rosatom State Corporation RPS (Rosatom Production System), for the need to optimize dates and cost of nuclear industry facilities construction. The expert community also demonstrated profound interest in the presentation on the cutting-edge fast-track technologies to perform construction, installation operations and steel fibre reinforced concrete formwork and waterproofing for NPP, developed by VNIIG n.a. B.E. Vedeneev, JSC, and Institute ORGENERGOSTROY, JSC. ‘In the framework of R&D we are developing a technology of a new type of heavyweight concrete which is able to fill densely reinforced structures of NPP radiation protection, excluding human factor and to ensure protection against radiation effect for the duration of service life of the facility’, said Nikolay Tyutyunschikov, Head of Concrete and Repair Work Group, VNIIG n.a. B.E. Vedeneev, JSC. Comparison of cost and performance indicators, conducted by specialists, provide evidence that innovative technologies can sustain a high pace of construction, ensure operability and durability of structures, and significantly decrease labour costs and power consumption for construction and installation of the structures.

Discussing possible reduction of dates and decrease of industrial facilities construction cost, participants of the round table noted the need to decrease the number of procurement procedures, to minimize detailed documents updates, to improve project controllability. Elena Kolosova, Director on Development of K4, LLC, emphasized the development of knowledge database of organizational and process-related solutions using visual planning technologies (BIM-technologies).

In general, in the opinion of the participants of the discussion, the process of globalizing design team developers and the trend to use strategic international alliances as a tool for corporate growth permanently leads to changes in the management paradigm. That is why, in the near future, companies should make a bid for the development and implementation of innovative technologies and long term cooperation with external partners.